economy

First time unemployment numbers continue to hover over 400,000 per week. We’re this close to a double dip recession. The debt is soaring. The dollar in sinking. Far as we’re concerned, the only question that arises from this new Marist poll is this:

Mission accomplished: America's economy destroyed

What the hell is wrong with the 43% who don’t disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy.

McClatchyDC.com has the details:

Public disapproval of President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy reached a new high in mid-April, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll, as gasoline prices neared $4 a gallon and Washington lawmakers fought a bitter battle over the federal budget.

Some 57 percent of registered voters said they disapproved of Obama’s economic management, while only 40 percent approved. That’s the lowest score of his presidency.

“These numbers spell political trouble,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey. “To get re-elected with a 57 percent disapproval rating would be a very tall order.”

Meanwhile, public pessimism is growing: Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults said they thought the worst was yet to come for the U.S economy, up sharply from 39 percent in January. And 71 percent said the nation was still in a recession, even though the slump, which began in December 2007, officially ended in June 2009.

Yes. The worst is yet to come. It’s more than a year and a half until the next election and no Republicans stand out yet.

California Democrat Barbara Boxer has long held the unofficial title of World’s Dumbest Senator. But now it looks like she may have a little competition from Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill.

McCaskill’s glass was half full, but her brain was half empty when she spoke to the Georgetown University College Democrats on March 28. That’s when she revealed that there’s a silver lining to the recession: The lack of economic activity has reduced those pesky greenhouse gasses.

It does appear, however, that the bullshit and resultant methane emissions were rather heavy that day at Georgetown.

In other news, 31% of the passengers approved of the Captain’s handling of the Titanic.

Rasmussen has the details of the economic malaise:

The number of voters nationwide who give President Obama good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues has fallen to a new low.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters show that just 31% rate Obama’s handling of economic issues as good or excellent. Forty-five percent (45%) say the president is doing a poor job handling these issues.

Positive ratings for the president on these issues are down from 34% last week and are the lowest since he took office in early 2009.

Maybe next time around Rasmussen should ask what flavor of Kool-Aid is most popular among the 31%.

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, to once again explain why Barack Obama has once again announced that job creation is once again his top priority.

The President calls for quiet from the gallery while he addresses unemployment

But why, Ed Henry wondered, has it taken so long for Obama to focus on jobs?

Well, Kaine explained, Obama’s been busy. Very busy, really, with a lot of other very important stuff.

Yes, he has. Let’s not forget that the President had 50-some rounds of golf to play. And a basketball game or twenty to play. And dozens of vacations to take. And a healthcare plan to cram down the throats of the American people.

Those things took time, damn it, and the President will get to that jobs thing right after he takes care of more important things.

The devastating losses in the November elections were obviously far harder on Nancy Pelosi than was previously thought. The poor woman has suffered a complete mental breakdown and has completely lost touch with reality.

The soon-to-be former Speaker stood on the floor of the House and said, “Obama was a job creator from day one.”

This, of course, is in complete contrast to reality, which shows that lowest unemployment rate of the Obama administration was on day one. It has done nothing but rise since then.

Bottom line: In the last two years we’ve lost nine million jobs and one mind.

Austan Goolsbee fills a dual role: economic advisor for President Obama and translator for Joe Biden

Remember a couple months ago when Joe Biden waxed poetically about the incipient “Summer of Recovery?” Most people thought he meant that the economy was going to improve. But Austin Goolsbee, President Obama’s newest liar economic advisor, now wants to correct that mistaken impression.

Fox News has Goolsebee’s interpretation:

“The vice president was talking about the summer of recovery in reference to the Recovery Act, that you would see the creation of a series of infrastructure and other projects ramping up over the summer,” Goolsbee said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And you did see that.”

The declaration by the Obama administration in June that 2010 would mark the “summer of recovery” has drawn ridicule from Republicans as the election nears with unemployment hovering well above 9 percent for 16 consecutive months.

So recovery doesn’t actually means more job losses.

Much like November isn’t going to mean a rejection of Obama’s economic policies.

Barack Obama claims that he hasn’t seen any plans from Republicans. How about this one from House Republican leader John Boehner.

The Ohio Republican told Good Morning America that both parties should work together to create jobs by cutting spending to 2008 levels and freezing all tax rates for two years.

“What I’d like to do is work on a bipartisan basis to do two things. First, instead of waiting until after the election to put together some big omnibus spending bill with a bunch of wasteful spending, why wouldn’t we do this? Why don’t we pass a bill this month at 2008 spending levels — before the TARP, before the bailouts, before the ‘stimulus’ — and let’s put some certainty in the economy. … Secondly, why wouldn’t we work together to make it clear that all current tax rates will be extended for the next two years? What that will do is help small businesses, who have no clue what the coming tax rates are going to be, and give them some certainty. If we’re able to do this together, I think we’ll show the American people that we understand what’s going on in the country and we’ll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America.”

Of course, George Stephanopoulos looked at him like he had two heads. Which, of course, would be two more than the Democrats seem to have these days.

If you listen to the President, prosperity is just around the corner. If you listen to his economic team, it’s just around the corner, down the block, take a left, go down to the traffic signal, pull over to the side of the road, call OnStar and wait for further instructions.

FoxNews.com has details of the depressing discrepancy:

The Obama administration’s latest get-the-economy-out-of-its-rut proposal will create jobs “immediately,” the president says — so long as immediately doesn’t mean this year.

President Obama and his senior administration officials appeared to be reading from different scripts Monday as they offered projections for how a proposed $50 billion infrastructure investment would affect the economy.

The plan would pump money into road repair, railway construction and runway restoration. Speaking in Milwaukee, Obama said the package would “create jobs immediately” as well as “make our economy hum over the long haul.”

But senior administration officials, speaking on a conference call with reporters just hours earlier, said the proposal was not designed to instantly gratify the jobs market and would probably not lead to any new jobs until 2011.

“This is not a stimulus-immediate jobs plan,” one official said.

No, no, no. Don’t make that mistake. This isn’t a stimulus-immediate plan. It’s more of a stimulus-fake-it-until-November-and-the-punt jobs plan.

Some people are born to be politicians. Like Harry Reid, for example. He can tell the most outrageous lies without the slightest hint of shame.

Doesn’t matter that ol’ Harry runs the United States Senate. Doesn’t matter that he’s been there for 28 years. Doesn’t matter that he used parliamentary trickery to get ObamaCare passed. Doesn’t matter that he’s spent us into near oblivion. Nope. None of that matters. Harry says you can’t find his fingerprints anywhere on the bad economy.

“You know that I had nothing to do with the massive foreclosures here. You know that I had nothing to do with these unemployment figures,” Reid says. “In fact, I’ve worked hard to change them. My job is to create jobs. My opponent says that is not her job to create jobs. And I think that is really wrong. I think it is my job to create jobs and I’ve done my best. Is there more that needs to take place? Of course, there is.”

Reid insists that “it would take a real stretch” to think that he had anything to do with the country’s current economic woes. Of course, you know who he blamed.

“I don’t have any hand in what took place during the Bush administration. I tried to rein that in,” Reid said.

We don’t like to beg. It’s undignified and beneath our lofty stature as eminent bloggers and intellectual giants. But in this case, we’re willing to do it.

For god’s sake, Nevada, do the right thing. Vote this moron out of office. Pleeeeeeeeeease.

Liberals paint pretty pictures of vast armies of “green” workers, driving their non-polluting electric cars to work and stimulating the heck out of the economy.

A more accurate picture would show them riding unicorns that poop lollipops.

BECAUSE IT’S ALL NONSENSE, PEOPLE!

Just check out this report from Wisconsin’s MacIver Institute:

Although they are touted and promoted by policy makers and opinion leaders across the state, accurately defining and keeping track of ‘green jobs’ has proven nearly impossible in Wisconsin. … In all, at the time of our search, the [Wisconsin Wind Works] database claimed 7,632 jobs among the eight manufacturers that were current primary suppliers to the wind industry. Yet, the MacIver News Service was only able to identify 31 jobs at those companies which were specifically tied to wind energy related products.

In case we were too subtle and you didn’t get it the first time, we’re happy to repeat our highly-scientific conclusion:

America honors its greatest leaders by putting their likenesses on its US currency. We believe it’s high time that Barack Obama, The Greatest President In History, receives this same honor. Unfortunately, most of the denominations are taken.

For example, a likeness of George Washington, our nation’s first president and leader of the American Revolution, graces the one dollar bill.

“Honest” Abe Lincoln, the revered leader who lead our nation through its darkest hour, appears on the five dollar bill.

On the same day that he bragged that the worst of the recession is over, the Dow Jones tumbled 265 points and followed that up with another 59 point loss on Thursday after the Fed downgraded its forecast for economic recovery and the likelihood of a double-dip recession increased.

Nevertheless, President Obama refused to bow to reality (he reserves his bowing for America’s enemies) and “insisted the worst of the recession is over as he signed legislation suspending duties on hundreds of imports.”

“So while we have fought back from the worst of this recession, we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” the Propagandist In Chief added. “We’ve still got a long way to go. And I’m more determined than ever to do every single thing we can to hasten our economic recovery and get our people back to work.”

Every single thing? So cutting taxes is on the table. Nah, who are we kidding?

Good lord, man, if this is a “recovery summer,” we’d hate to see a recessionary summer.

AFL-CIO head honcho Richard Trumka has apparently gone off his meds and needs to get back on them immediately.

He actually called the deficit problem fiction and said, “We don’t have a deficit problem. Every economist in the country knows that.”

No, Richard, what we have is a union problem. A moron problem. A head up our ass problem. A “I’m-gonna-say-something-really-stupid-and-the-liberal-media-outlet-won’t-have-enough-integrity-to-call-me-on-it problem.” A “What you talkin’ about, Willis?” problem. A lust for power problem. A socialist utopia problem. A problem dealing with reality problem.

Maybe it’s us, but doesn’t it look like Defense Secretary Gates is watching his back. Or ours.

If one didn’t know better, you might think the Obama administration is on a hell bent, downward spiraling, broken rollercoaster ride to totally disembowel the American way.

In the latest move to weaken our once great nation, the Obama led goon squad has decided to close the US Military Command Center in Norfolk, Virginia. This will put 4,900 people out of work.

They claim it will save $240 million per year – or about what they spent on a few pork barrel projects to do things like turtle crossings and new windows for a vacant building.

As Fox News reports, even Democrats are wondering what the hell this administration is doing:

“I can see no rational basis for dismantling JFCOM since its sole mission is to look for efficiencies and greater cost-savings by forcing more cooperation among sometimes competing military services,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a written statement. “In the business world, you sometimes have to spend money in order to save money.” He vowed to work with the congressional delegation to retain as many jobs connected to the command as possible. Norfolk is one of 10 major U.S. military commands.

The only thing left to do is leave the keys to our freedom in the unlocked car. With the engine running.

Mandatory viewing is required of the following video. Then send the link to this page to your favorite elected officials.

Just a few common sense quotes from the video that takes more than the single remaining neuron in Washington to process:

“Is there a businessman or a media person in America that […] isn’t frightened about the next crazy idea coming from Washington?”

“The financial institutions, the cars, the businessmen, the taxes, the healthcare, everything is cookoo and God knows what’s next”

Wynn speaks of “wild, uncontrolled spending,” and “unbelievable, unsustainable debt”. As he plans to split his company headquarters between Las Vegas and Macau, with a bigger emphasis on Macau because of its tremendous profitability, he has no qualms about dealing with the Chinese government.

“Macau has been steady. The shocking, unexpected government is the one in Washington.”

He’s concerned about the prospect of inflation, of FHA repeating the mistakes of Fannie and Freddie, and the cost to business from the new healthcare law. “We’re on our way to Greece, in the hands of a confused, foolish government,” Wynn says. “It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop.”

If the crack IHTM.com team hadn’t blown all our petty cash in Wynn’s casino, we’d buy him a drink!

Consider this the best economic news this country has had in the last two years. One of the chief architects of President Obama’s disastrous economic policies has called it quits.

Fox News has the good news:

Hey, Christina. Little Orphan Annie called and she wants her dress back.

Christina Romer, one of President Obama’s top advisers, plans to step down effective Sept. 3.

Romer, chairwoman of the president Council of Economic Advisers, plans to return to California, where her son will be starting high school, the White House said Thursday evening. She also is returning to the University of California, Berkley as an economics professor.

“Christy Romer has provided extraordinary service to me and our country during a time of economic crisis and recovery,” Obama said in a written statement. “The challenges we faced demanded more of Christy than any of her predecessors, and I greatly valued and appreciated her skill, commitment and wise counsel.

Translation: “Christy realizes that everything we’ve done has blown up in our faces like the Hindenberg and she wants to get out before her career is completely discredited. Luckily, the U.C. Berkeley is willing to pay her a ton of your tax dollars to inflict her failed economic theories on another generation.”

Just when we have all gotten used to George Bush being behind all past wrongs in the universe, Newsweek figures out who to blame for future ones: Republicans.

The happiest man in Crawford, Texas. He's not the one to blame.

In an article discussing “double dippers,” which are defined as “the politicians, economists and analysts who foresee back-to-back recessions,” Newsweek theorizes that “Their warnings could become self-fulfilling prophecies if they frighten enough people into holding tightly onto their wallets. With consumer spending accounting for two-thirds of economic activity, anything that further rattles consumers can undercut recovery hopes.”

So in other words, it’s not the piss poor ineffective financial policies that the Obama administration has shoved down our throats courageously initiated despite public sentiment, it is the scare tactics of people like … wait for it … ”Republicans leaders” who, according to the article, “are keeping up a steady downbeat drumbeat.”

For example, MSNBC quotes House Republican leader John Boehner as saying that Democratic initiatives “have created uncertainty that has undermined our economy, shaken the confidence of the nation and cost millions of American jobs.”

And that’s a bad thing to do. A real bad thing. Because just as criticizing Obama equals racism, criticizing Democrat economic policies now equals a recipe for a double dip recession.

Just a few weeks ago, President Obama and Vice President Biden foolishly began touring the country and touting what they called “Recovery Summer.” Unfortunately, the economy has refused to cooperate. And the American people are calling it the Horse Hooey Summer.

Qunnipiac University has the depressing numbers:

The U.S. remains in a recession, 79 percent of voters tell the independent Quinnipiac University poll, compared to 74 percent who felt that way in May and 71 percent who said so in May of 2008, when the economy began its slide.

American voters say 52 – 44 percent the economy is not beginning to recover. Only 23 percent say the economy is getting better, while 31 percent say it is getting worse and 44 percent see no change. In May, 32 percent of voters thought the economy was getting better, while 24 percent said it was getting worse and 43 percent saw no change.

Summer of Recovery doesn’t seem to be working. And Summer of our Discontent makes a lousy slogan.

“What is absolutely clear is we’re moving in the right direction, we’re headed in the right direction,” Obama said at an electric truck factory here, before a pair of campaign appearances for Senate Democratic candidates in Missouri and Nevada.

Obama jabbed Republicans who are threatening to swamp his party in the upcoming elections, though none by name. “There are some people who make the political calculation that it is better to say no to everything than lend a hand,” he said.

Seems to us that the Democrats have become the Party of No: No compromise. No rational economic theory. No listening to the American people.

Wow. Just wow. Nancy Pelosi on Thursday made herself the odds on favorite to win the award for “Stupidest Quote of 2010.” We realize we’re only half way through the year, but this one is going to be tough to beat.

In the words of Gateway Pundit, “Only a government bureaucrat would think paying someone for not working is a job creator.”

NOTE: As a result of the Botox injections, Nancy says everything with a straight face. So there is a possibility that she was making a joke, but no one could tell. One can only hope.

Last quarter, economic growth came in at 5.7%. This week the latest quarter’s number came in and growth was just 3.2%.

The President’s response?

“The economy that was losing jobs a year ago is creating jobs today. After the single biggest economic crisis in our lifetimes, we’re heading in the right direction. We’re moving forward. Our economy is stronger — that economic heartbeat is growing stronger. But I measure progress by a different pulse.”

The economy slows down and the President says we’re making progress. Iran continues making nuclear weapons and insulting the United States and Obama says we’re making progress. The deficit continues to skyrocket and Obama says we’re making progress.